Amazing how routine makes me take things for granted. What is hope in my life? I use the word all the time. "I hope you feel better soon." "I hope the weather is better soon." "I hope I get what I want for my anniversary." (Notice I use it mostly as a verb.)
When my children struggle with a word meaning I point them to the dictionary. Mr. Webster and I had a consultation.
Hope - Noun - A feeling that what is wanted will happen; desire accompanied by expectation, the thing that one has a hope for, a reason for hope trust;reliance
verb - to expect, to look for, to want AND expect, to trust or rely;synonym-expect
Vine's defines it as favourable and confident expectation. It has to do with the unseen and the future. Romans 8:24-25 "We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[a] for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) Hope describes (a) the happy anticipation of good (the most frequent significance)
I started to think about confidence and hope and how they are linked. Where desire is accompanied by expectation. Wanting and expecting. Things that are unseen. Anticipation.
When I don't see the result I'm expecting, am I confidently patient? Ummm, honestly, not usually, more honestly - rarely. How else can confident hope be defined? FAITH
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ReplyDeleteHope was discussed in depth during Advent in our church. I so love it when my mind grasps a whole new understanding of such a common word- worldly hope and biblical hope; selfish hope and FAITHFUL hope. What I feel like that means is that Jesus' words do not mean that we can automatically obtain anything we want if we just think positively. Jesus meant that anything is POSSIBLE if we believe, because nothing is too difficult for God. We can't have everything we pray for as if by magic; but with faith, we can have everything we need to serve Him. At the end of my notes on this, I have Mark 9:23 as my reference verse... Everything is possible for him who believes. Man, that's GOOD NEWS!
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